Paul Morris

I completed my PhD under the supervision of Professor Tony Gale at the University of Southampton. I then spent several years working for pharmaceutical companies on the development of anti-depressants and neuroleptics before returning to academia at Portsmouth.

Teaching Responsibilities

I present and unit co-ordinate a final year unit on advanced statistical methods on the BSc Psychology programme. I am also a year one and year two tutor and final year project supervisor. In terms of values I think there is now a relative neglect of the value of education as a good in itself. Higher education should be about more than producing ever more efficient producers and consumers.

Research Interests

My research is focused on the ecological approach to psychology. Within this theoretical framework I have a diverse range of interests including secondary emotions in animals and infants, animal personality, inter species communication and the embodiment of emotions and intentions. Taking as inspiration the work of John Dewey and James Gibson (amongst others), I think that emotions and intentions should be considered as being created in the transaction between an organism and its social and physical world, rather than as private, internal mental events. My research leads me to question ‘theory of mind’ approaches to understanding; I am also sceptical of the traditional scientific scepticism of animal consciousness.